The Great Leap Forward

A commune canteen during China's "Great Leap Forward."

Let's have a look at the new “Leap Manifesto," shall we? This could actually be fun. Didn't our grandmothers warn us to look before we leap?

1. The leap must begin by respecting the inherent rights and title of the original caretakers of this land, starting by fully implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

There are no inherent aboriginal rights. First, the concept of “aborigines” is perfectly arbitrary, and second, all men are created equal. We are bound by treaty in some cases. No more, no less.

2. The latest research shows we could get 100% of our electricity from renewable resources within two decades; by 2050 we could have a 100% clean economy. We demand that this shift begin now.

In a nation that has the world’s second-largest reserves of oil and gas, why would we want to? Nor is “renewable” the same thing as “clean.” Nuclear is probably the cleanest energy, but is “non-renewable.” Biomass is probably the most disruptive to the environment, but is “renewable.”

3. No new infrastructure projects that lock us into increased extraction decades into the future. The new iron law of energy development must be: if you wouldn’t want it in your backyard, then it doesn’t belong in anyone’s backyard.

This “iron law” would prevent the construction of a lot of things of general value: cemeteries, prisons, mental hospitals, halfway houses, community living for the mentally retarded, town dumps, landfill sites, and so forth. It would also probably prevent the building of any factories or farms, which might have some detrimental effects on the economy.

4. The time for energy democracy has come: wherever possible, communities should collectively control new clean energy systems. Indigenous Peoples and others on the frontlines of polluting industrial activity should be first to receive public support for their own clean energy projects.

Small, locally run public utilities obviously lose any economies of scale. Is there any upside? And why need the government be involved?

5. We want a universal program to build and retrofit energy efficient housing, ensuring that the lowest income communities will benefit first.

It is in your self-interest to make your home energy efficient, to save on utility bills. Accordingly, no government intervention is necessary. This is just a handout to homeowners and landlords. You take the money out of their pockets, and then put some of it back in again.

6. We want high-speed rail powered by just renewables and affordable public transit to unite every community in this country – in place of more cars, pipelines and exploding trains that endanger and divide us.

This is technically impossible as written. A train that stops at every community cannot reach high speeds. Not sure what an “exploding train” is. It sounds bad. How will we ensure that the high-speed trains do not also explode? How does public transit replace pipelines?

7. We want training and resources for workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to participate in the clean energy economy.

Carbon intensive jobs? Presumably, jobs in the oil patch. Those guys are making good wages. They are not likely to quit their jobs to go back to school to train for another job that pays less. In any case, they don't need our tax money.

8. We need to invest in our decaying public infrastructure so that it can withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events.

Bridges and roads and such do need to be tended to regularly. On the other hand, politicians hardly need to be reminded of this. It is their prime opportunity for porkbarrelling and graft.

Think globally, act locally: backyard blast furnaces during China's "Great :Leap Forward."

9. We must develop a more localized and ecologically-based agricultural system to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, absorb shocks in the global supply – and produce healthier and more affordable food for everyone.

Probably the worst way to avoid shocks in the supply chain is to try to get all your food locally. This is an almost literal example of putting all your eggs in one basket. That, and the eggs will probably cost more. And you will have little but eggs to eat.

10. We call for an end to all trade deals that interfere with our attempts to rebuild local economies, regulate corporations and stop damaging extractive projects.

By this same logic, we should stop buying from shops, and make everything ourselves at home. That ought to make life better. It worked for our neanderthal ancestors. No, wait, the neanderthals died out, didn't they?

11. We demand immigration status and full protection for all workers. Canadians can begin to rebalance the scales of climate justice by welcoming refugees and migrants seeking safety and a better life.

What, exactly, is “climate justice”? What does it really have to do with getting a cheaper gardener? Do we really want to limit immigration to workers, not their families, or is that just doubletalk?

12. We must expand those sectors that are already low-carbon: caregiving, teaching, social work, the arts and public-interest media. A national childcare program is long past due.

What do all these “sectors” have in common? There is nothing obviously “low-carbon” about them. Heck, kids in childcare are not just carbon-based life forms: they tend to exhale and excrete carbon dioxide from every orifice. Not to mention requiring heating and electricity. No ,what these sectors have in common is that they are commonly imposed involuntarily by government. They also seem to approach the ideal of the proverbial town where everyone made a good living taking in each other's laundry. That ought to work.

13. Since so much of the labour of caretaking – whether of people or the planet – is currently unpaid and often performed by women, we call for a vigorous debate about the introduction of a universal basic annual income.

A universal basic annual income is not by itself a bad idea. It could be a cheaper alternative to the huge bureaucracy that has grown up around redistribution of wealth, and might see more money actually ending up in the hands of the poor. But the first half of the sentence above suggests why it might not work out so well: it could break up families, by undermining the role of the husband and father.

14. We declare that “austerity” is a fossilized form of thinking that has become a threat to life on earth. The money we need to pay for this great transformation is available — we just need the right policies to release it. An end to fossil fuel subsidies. Financial transaction taxes. Increased resource royalties. Higher income taxes on corporations and wealthy people. A progressive carbon tax. Cuts to military spending.

I thought the whole idea of preserving the earth was to leave a small footprint? Not to consume?

These people can never have been poor. For the poor, ”austerity” is not a “fossilized form of thinking.” It is the necessary means for survival. It is the poor, above all, who cannot afford a government that is spending recklessly. There really is a tomorrow.

15. We must work swiftly towards a system in which every vote counts and corporate money is removed from political campaigns.

Removing corporate money from political campaigns—so long as that includes all corporations, not just business corporations, i.e., also unions, professional associations, and non-profits—would be a good thing, it if were possible. But it is not. You cannot make a law, however draconian, and it would have to be draconian, that is without loopholes. Since it is not possible, transparency is probably the best we can do.